By Tarik El-Bashir
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 3, 2009; E01
HERSHEY, Pa.
Just beyond the billboard welcoming visitors to "The Sweetest Place On Earth," past the cornfields and fast-food restaurants but before the entrance to the amusement park, a gleaming building rises from acres of asphalt.
This quaint central Pennsylvania town is quite possibly the last place anyone would look for one of hockey's oldest and most successful franchises. Yet here is Giant Center, the home of the nine-time American Hockey League champion Hershey Bears.
Two hours before opening faceoff on a recent Saturday night, traffic backed up half a mile on Hersheypark Drive. The parking lot was filling up fast, and thousands of fans waited in sub-freezing temperatures outside the entrance, eager to get inside and find their seats for the anticipated matchup against the Bears' biggest rival, the Philadelphia Phantoms.
"I've been to Hamilton, Worcester, Hartford, Providence and Wilkes-Barre," season ticket holder Shaun Batts said as he navigated the congested concourse earlier this month, "and this is the best [AHL] town for hockey I've seen. I went to Worcester last year, and there were 1,000 fans there. We have that many waiting outside the doors to get in."
This season has unfolded like so many others in the team's 71-year history: The Bears, the Washington Capitals' top minor league affiliate, sit atop the Eastern Conference standings and have sold more tickets, by a whopping margin, than any other AHL team.
Attendance around the league has suffered this season from the economic downturn, off about 3 1/2 percent from last season. Hershey, though, is among the exceptions. A year after setting a franchise record for attendance, the Bears are averaging 8,842 fans per game, almost 1,500 more than the Manitoba Moose and nearly 4,000 more than the average for the 29-team league.
If attendance figures aren't enough, proof of Hershey's passion for the Bears is obvious once inside the arena, which is about 40 percent smaller than a typical NHL building. Most fans take their seats an hour before the opening faceoff, and many of them remain in them during intermissions for fear of missing any action.
Less than five minutes into Saturday's game, a middle-aged man behind the Bears' bench leaned forward and bellowed: "Come on! Aren't you guys sick of losing yet?" By the time Hershey's second power play came up empty later in the first period, he was no longer alone in his dissent. A booming round of boos echoed throughout the arena. The scoreboard, by the way, showed 0-0.
"We expect a lot," season ticket holder Travis Sooy said after making reference to the team's 11-game winning streak earlier this season. "We see the talent on this team, and we expect to see that talent produce."
There's a prevailing hope among the team's legion of loyal patrons -- no, make that an expectation -- that a 10th banner will soon join the others. Hershey is home to many division and conference titles, too. But only league championships are considered significant enough to warrant banners.
"So much is expected from you," said Bears center Keith Aucoin, the AHL's leading scorer. "It's as close as you're going to get to the NHL crowd-wise and atmosphere-wise."
So why are the Bears poised to set another attendance record as other teams' crowds shrink? There are many factors at work, but the biggest, according to team officials and fans, is the team's tradition of putting a winner on the ice. Hershey is tied with the defunct Cleveland Barons for the most championships in league history, and have at least one from each decade dating from the 1946-47 season.
The core of the Bears' fan base is made up of season ticket holders from Hershey and areas within a 45-minute drive, according to Bob Ancharski, the Bears' season ticket sales manager. Entertainment options are limited in this mostly blue-collar region, but the Bears' history of winning plus the amenities and NHL-like atmosphere offered at minor league prices (the average ticket costs $19, as opposed to $42 in Washington) make a Bears game a relative bargain. Also, Giant Center, which replaced Hersheypark Arena in 2002, is considered one of the plushest minor league venues in the league.
"Number one, the Bears are a good team and they're leading the league right now," said Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, who was sitting in the lower bowl during a recent game. "Number two, this is very good hockey area, with a lot of youth hockey, and number three, Central Pennsylvania is a population center that doesn't have a lot of entertainment options. Hockey is not quite basketball in central Pennsylvania, but it's getting there."
Coaches and players are stars in Hershey, unlike some other AHL cities where they enjoy relative anonymity.
"It's the thing to do in town," Bears Coach Bob Woods said. "They know you, and about the Bears."
The Philadelphia Flyers are the closest NHL team to Hershey, about a 90-minute drive to the east. The Pittsburgh Penguins are 220 miles to the west and the Capitals reside 130 miles to the south. Through the Bears' long history, they have been affiliated with the Flyers, Penguins, Boston Bruins, Buffalo Sabres, Colorado Avalanche and Capitals. The Bears and Capitals renewed their affiliation in 2005 in a move that has benefited both clubs.
Stocked with Capitals' draft picks, Hershey captured its most recent Calder Cup in 2006 and was runner-up in 2007. The coach of those Bears teams was Bruce Boudreau, a minor league lifer who was promoted to Washington in November 2007, then guided the Capitals back to the playoffs last spring after a five-year hiatus. Current Capitals Tomas Fleischmann, Eric Fehr, Mike Green and Brooks Laich were part of the 2006 championship team.
For Hershey fans such as James Worley, the affiliation gives him another hockey team to cheer and a reason to be in front of his television at 7 p.m. sharp three or four times a week. When he's not seated at Giant Center, he's home watching the Capitals -- and Fleischmann, his favorite former Bear -- on the satellite dish.
"We get the NHL ticket on the dish, so we watch all of the Caps' games," said Worley, who was sporting a burgundy Fleischmann jersey.
The influx of Hershey call-ups this season in Washington has also stoked interest in the Bears from Capitals' fans. In all, 14 Bears have suited up for the Capitals, seven of them making their NHL debuts.
"It's wonderful to make the short drive up here and see the interplay between the big league team and the minor league team," said Mark Smith, who was wearing a red Alex Ovechkin jersey and had come from Odenton for his first Bears game. "This place is wonderful. I'm going to make a habit of this."
